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Everything you need to know about cars this week: 4 Aug '19
AMG's A45 reviewed, and our first glimpse of the Pagani Huayra Roadster BC
Tesla Model 3 vs Hyundai Kona vs BMW 330i
"A standard Top Gear group test goes like this: take cars of the same size, same price, aiming at the same buyers by doing the same job. Tease out which of them is best at that job. Write it down. But today’s group test, you’ll already have discerned, is different. A regular buyer’s-guide kinda test this is not. Truth is, anyone contemplating buying any one of these three probably wouldn’t even begin to entertain any of the others. At first blush, they make a pretty much random convoy."
Advertisement - Page continues belowReview: BMW 3 Series Touring
"For the vast majority of us, the 3 Series Touring is all the car we could use or want."
Pikes Peak has cancelled motorbikes for 2020
"Pikes Peak, for the uninitiated, is an annual hill climb up a public road in Colorado that scales the side of a mountain. Starting way back in 1916, the course is a snaking 12.42-mile, 4,720-foot ascent through 156 corners and into the clouds to the chequered flag at a queasy 14,000ft. Now, after a string of accidents, the race organisers have banned all motorbike classes for 2020."
Advertisement - Page continues belowThe new Audi A1 'citycarver' is a lightly raised city car
"Welcome to a lightly-crossovered Audi A1. Called the ‘citycarver’ – yep, all lowercase – it’s basically a normal A1 with 4cm of extra ground clearance for “easier entry and better visibility”. So much for the cool, urban youth – sounds like this thing’s aimed squarely at the elderly and infirm…"
A wonderfully ratty Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk II is for sale
"It’s getting to that time of the year where awfully posh people stand on lawns and buy cars while washing down a belly full of lobster with a fuel tanker’s worth of champagne. Yep, it’s the summer auction season, people. But that means some splendid cars are coming out of the woodwork. Cars like this wonderfully ratty Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk II."
Surprise: the cheapest new Porsche 911 Carrera is not cheap
"The entry-level, least powerful, cheapest Porsche 911 money can buy will get you from 0-62mph in 4.0 seconds dead and hit a top speed of 182mph. Are we even shocked by that any more? Maybe we’re all just a bit spoiled."
Interview: former Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche
"Few people have had as much influence on the cars we drive as Dieter Zetsche. He was chief engineer at Mercedes from the early-1990s, responsible for a rapid expansion in the model range. He was made boss of the merged DaimlerChrysler organisation, and boss of the Daimler Group since the two split. A quarter century."
Advertisement - Page continues belowReview: Lotus Evora
"There are really two ways of looking at the Evora: either as a bigger, softer Lotus – kind of like Pink Floyd in the 1990s – or as the lightest, lithest GT car that money can buy."
Top Gear Taxi: Daniel Ricciardo in a Renault Clio V6
"It’s been a tricky start to the season, following a big-money move from Red Bull to Renault, but if anyone can find the silver lining it’s Mr Smiley himself. We go for a drive with Danny Ric in Renault’s hilariously overpowered mid-engined hot hatch, the Clio V6."
Advertisement - Page continues belowReview: Mini Clubman John Cooper Works
"Now very much on the same page as the Merc, Audi or VW. Just a pity it isn’t as playful or interactive to drive as you’d hope a JCW would be."
Ginetta's boss on the Akula: “It’s the British Pagani”
"With its British bulldog-esque muscular proportions, short wheelbase and big V8, it all feels very TVR. Dare we say it, more TVR than the new TVR. Which is quite interesting, considering Lawrence tried but failed to buy TVR when Russian mini-oligarch Nikolai Smolenski rocked up and snatched the keys to Blackpool’s iconic car company. "
Gallery: the gorgeous BMW M1 Art Car in a disused factory
"Nice, isn’t it? No need to tell you a story here because the pictures are the story. Literally. A young photographer named Stephan Butler won a BMW competition, whereby the prize was the opportunity to photograph whichever classic BMW model he chose, wherever he chose. Butler, correctly, opted to capture 1979’s masterpiece: the BMW M1 Art Car by Andy Warhol."
Review: Mercedes-AMG A45
"The most powerful hot hatch in series production operates unobtrusively when you don’t demand much, and goes properly feral when you do."
Here's why the new Renault Megane Trophy R costs £72k
"The biggest talking point of all, though, has been the cost of buying one of the 500 cars Renault’s making. Just 32 are coming to the UK, with prices starting at £51,140. The fully-specced Nurburgring Record version, which is the exact same spec as the record-setting car (carbon brakes and so on), will cost a staggering £72,140."
This is the new, £3.7m Pagani Huayra Roadster BC
"Remember when the Huayra rocked up at £800k (nearly four times an Aventador at the time) and was seen as pricey? Well, the Roadster BC has a sticker price of £3.7m. But the appreciation of cars like this has continued to grow, attracting high-value, low-profile customers like you wouldn’t believe. And the run of 40 is already accounted for. So no matter the result of Brexit, that kind of money isn’t a problem. Let’s just hope they track the topless steampunk spaceships. And let us have a go."
Review: Audi Q7
"Not exactly revolutionary, but it makes plenty of sense... if you need this sort of thing."
The first ever Ford GT40 Roadster is for sale for $9m
"Naturally, GT Roadster number GT/108 has an interesting story behind it. Completed in March 1965, 108 is believed to be the first car built at the Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) plant in Slough. After testing at Silverstone (where it was driven by legends Sir John Whitmore and Richard Attwood), 108 was promptly shipped to California, where it would be looked after by none other than Carroll Shelby."
Litchfield has boosted the Toyota Supra to over 420bhp
"British tuner Litchfield, famous among the GT-R fraternity for extracting monster power figures, has now extracted something rather interesting from a different Japanese icon. The Toyota Supra."
The Lotus T125 track car has returned as the Rodin FZED
"Prices start at $650,000. Which isn’t too bad, considering what you’re getting. The FZED uses a 3.8-litre Cosworth V8 making 675bhp and 9,600rpm, which Rodin claims can run for over 3,000 miles on regular, 98-octane petrol before it needs a rebuild. It can reach 100mph from rest in just five seconds, and weighs just 610kg thanks to liberal use of composites and fancy metals."
Framing John DeLorean is the story of DeLorean's fall
"How did a former high-flying General Motors executive end up building a stainless steel, gullwinged sports car, in war-torn Belfast, only to find himself entrapped by the FBI holding 100kg of cocaine in an LA hotel room?"
Merc-AMG A45 S vs Audi RS3: 0-120mph battle
"Mercedes-AMG A45 versus Audi RS3. Now there’s a head-to-head we want to conduct. But we haven’t – yet. Instead, I wanted to show you just how evenly matched the two are – and how deeply fast each is as well."
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